INFLUENCE OF  RELIGION  UPON  THE  HINDU.	XI
a mixture of pearl shells and  sour dates, or of  pearls
and dung or of costly crystals and common pebbles."
From the time of the Upanishads, the aim of the
Illustrations of Hindu ^as ^een to know the One hy
religion "upon the ca'm meditation undisturbed by
Hindumiad:Yo£fe; mundane thoughts, or, in later times
to be lost in ecstatic love for Him. To the practical
European, a R£mkrishna* spending his whole life in
meditation and dovotional exercises in calm retirement,
or a Chaitanya dancing in the streets in frenzied love
for his Deity, may appear as, at best, a visionary
enthusiast. These "dreamers/' however, have a philos-
ophy of their own, which would make out the practical
European engaged in a perpetual struggle for the
betterment of his fortune as a hunter after shadows.
The extent of the influence still exercised by such
"dreamers7* is not known. They rarely, if ever, appear
in newspapers; what they do is done in silence and
secrecy. We were surprised to find last year, that the
Gondst of an extensive tract in the Rewah State (Central
* Vide Book I. Ch. IV.
t TI»e Gonds are an aboriginal  tribe  who,   like  most  aboriginal
tribes, are fond of intoxicating .